More local gas industry jobs going to out-of-state workers

Local workers laid off at gas plant in Evans City

Workers protesting at a compressor station construction site in Eastern Ohio because they've been unable to get jobs there. Many of them have been working in the gas industry for years, but lately they say they've been replaced by workers from out of state.

They say the gas industry has given them steady jobs and good paychecks. But they are angry to see their jobs going to people from out of state.

“It's a hard pill to swallow. The gas is here. We should be doing the work. Not Texas, not Arizona, not Louisiana. Pennsylvanians should be doing the work,” Radovich said.

“I'm sympathetic, but on the other hand I'm overjoyed to be here working,” said Bilfinger Westcon project manager Matt Nashadka.

He is from Elk County, Pennsylvania, but he has been on the road for 12 years. He acknowledges 70 to 80 percent of the company's workforce in Butler County is from outside the tri-state area.

“Sure, you could hire the local guys. You're going to help those 300 guys. But when we come into town, we're bringing 500 people and helping the entire community. Now, everybody's shopping at the stores, everybody's staying at the hotels, everybody's eating at the restaurants,” Nashadka said.

But Carnegie Mellon economist Robert Strauss says out-of-town workers do not really have that much impact on the local economy.

“They're not going to be spending that much, and they're going to be sending money back home to Houston or Dallas or where their families are,” Strauss said. “If people are laid off, that costs you money. You've got unemployment to cover, and your social service demands will go up.”

In a statement, MarkWest says it "has invested several billions in capital across various regional infrastructure projects to serve its customers and continues to do so. Taken together, these ongoing investments and associated contracts have resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars for regional union contractors."

Action News Investigates found the MarkWest plant is not the only one in the region that has gone outside the region to find most of its workers.

Some workers were protesting at a compressor station construction site in eastern Ohio, because they've been unable to get jobs there. Many of them have been working in the gas industry for years, but, lately they say they've been replaced by workers from out of state.

Action News Investigates was there when the workers confronted officials of Spectra Energy, which is building the plant.

Worker: “These are all guys from the area that are unemployed right now. We'd just like to get these guys back to work. They've done this work for so long. It's just a shame that it's going to people that aren't from this area.”

Spectra official: “Understand.”

One Spectra official explained why they did not hire more locals.

“The people we did hire locally did not pass the drug test,” he said.

Worker: “You could probably ask just about anywhere these guys have worked, they've all passed drug tests. How many guys here have taken a drug test?”

Company officials told the men they were not hiring, because the plant was almost finished. But they have other projects in the works.

Worker: “Will you consider hiring us in the future?”Spectra official: “It's not our decision.”

The local workers walked away feeling frustrated and angry.

“We have trained local workers here that deserve that work. We're the ones that live here. We should be allowed to work here,” said Dylan Krol, of St. Clairsville, Ohio.

That's getting harder as the price of natural gas plummets. Strauss said energy companies are cutting costs anywhere they can.

“That cost consciousness means they're going to try to move from union to nonunion labor, and it's only going to persist as long as the price of gas is low,” he said.

Laid-off worker Paul Meyer worries he will have to go back on the road to find a job, keeping him away from the grandson he and his wife are raising. But he says he does not have a choice.

“I don't think it's fair to the people in Pennsylvania that this is going on,” he said.

A MarkWest spokesman said three-quarters of the company's projects in the region during the past two years have gone to union contractors.

A spokesman for Spectra Energy says it held two local job fairs for its Ohio compressor plant project. But the company did not say how many jobs were taken by local residents or out-of-state workers.